polls, they're going to be sending in pictures, blogging. this i think is, this election is going to be really estif pe and the issues that we care about. >> we are way into overtime. rosario dawson gets the the no-nothings. let's play "hardball." >>odni i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start with the bone-headed poll numbers just in. i'm not talking out the arithmetic. m talking abt what it says about someoterout ere, ci oe rit. catch this. a third of conservative republans are convinced that the president is a muslim. a third. less than half believe in global warmg.

only 2 out of 5 in ohio, for example, believed he was born in the u.s. the rest areo ondegr or thothebirtrs. and just to make you feel a little better about that and let you know how low information these voters are on the right, catch this. two-thirds of republicans say there were weapons of mass destruction in iraq when our troops got there in 2003. do they have amnesia? semes thlastine ars?d inheir what explains this many people being so out to lunch they don't even remember how "w," remember him, he s president, blew his whole reason for sending our troops in there in the first place. how can peop be soelpless. anyway, this may explain why romney is inrouble because of ut t tnk har joing is ward fineman and joe klein of the times. let's take a look at the two polls. the two key states ohio and florida. according to "the washington post," president obama has a four-point lead over mitt romney in florida. four points downheren a ry tough state. 51%,/47% for obama.

in ohio, the president's lead is a more comfortable eight points. 52/44. that's dramatic. we have joining us -- let's take a look at that for a minute. howard fineman, thanyou for joing us, and joe klein of "time" magazine. ank you. strikes me the mberput out night, and i'm going to get all through them, shows a party obliterated to reality. she don't seem to watch the news. don't seem to know the huge fight that went on when we realized there was no weapons of mass destruction in iraq. that was the whole rlity we lived in, the disillusionment on the right, the confuon in the middle, the anger on the left. they didn't even experience that riod of time? >> well, chris, to put a charitably, i think the republican party today is the nostalgia party. atas msense of ihavi kindf manate t w ew down in tampa at the republican convention. they think of a simpler world, a world where the verities they believe in still apply in simple terms. the fact is it's a complex world. if you just run against govement, if the whole thing is i don want governmenti

don't believe in government, then you aren't going to participate in the reality of economic life for one in america today. they're the nostalgia party. they would like to believe that the military was correct, that dick cheney was correct about wes masstio they would prefer to believe in that -- >> but what evidence do they have that we were right about iraq and wmd? >> they don't. what i'm saying is ty want to telinelng authority figures who used to be respected around the country and who no longer are. joe klein, thank you for joining us. sometimes we can simply disagree by looking at the same picture. we can say, that's not true, that is true. when you look at something so demonstrably true, we didn't find weapons of mass destruction when we got to iraq, which con founded people, who supported the war. fair enough, they goit wrong people in the middle say, these guys don't know what they' talking about. people on the left said, we asor w in the first place. but to not know it. what do you make of these numbers?

democrats in this new poll, 63% say there was no weapons of mass destruction. 15% say there were. okay out 6 docra thihere mihaee republicans however, 63% of republicans say, yes, there were weapons of mass destruction, almost two-thirds. how do we account for this misstatement of fact? >> well, i think this is a trute to the persuasive powers of rush limbaugh and fox news and the drudge report and e rest of that echo chamber. you don't hear rush talking about weapons of mass destructn anymore, and i saw this pie chart on andrew sullivan's blog today, something like 93% of the mentions of glob warming on fox news knock it down as a real phenomenon. so when you have people living in this hermetically sealed world that does not resemble reality, they wind up believing somey ird ings

>> well, when the queen mary starts making regular trips across the polar ice cap because there's no more polar ice cap, do you think they might tice has anybody seen the pictures of greenland the other day? there's no snow. >> i agree with joe. i agree that, number one, the republicans are the nostalgia party. they're the simplicity party. they're the -- >> are they luddit, anti-science? >> i think if they're convinced, as many of them are, that science is being used as a conspiracy to take away their freedom and take away their dependence -- >> i saw that movie, it's called "planet of the apes" and it wasn't a comedy. >>i're a ln to -- we watch fox, we listen because have you to cover the wholspectrum as a reporter, that's the -- that's the message that you get. that the scientists and the bureaucrats are combining to rob us of our freedom. >> so it's basically a fear, ar vein take a look at this number though. the infamous birther question.

was the president born in the united states? unounstie to be born here to be president. ohio republican primary voters, people who voted already this year, 37% don't think barack obama was born here. just 2 in 5 say the president was american born and, therefore, a legitimate president. when you ask the president's religion, this gets scary. a majority of all voters don't take him at his word. just 49%. rin,ch is what he saysy he's he is. and 30% of republicans and 34% of conservative republicans say obama is a muslim. simple as that. now, here's the point, these bad numbers, saying it twice wrong, eye yrs ago.' twi what when he came in people took him at face value. this guy is what he says he is. i'm american born, obviously. i got a whole history, it was announced when i was born in honolulu, in all the papers there, and i am what i am, a christian. i go to this church that caused him a lot of trouble. do we remember that? went to a church, jeremiah wright's church at got him in all the oue. so hwengedrom that, anger about his church

with wright and acceptance of an american to this -- they're all becoming donald trumps, mini trumps. >> my explanation for it is fear. myxplanaon is it's not based s oneic history or -- it's fear. and among a certain part of this population, this country, which you showed there on the charts, they think that president obama is on a mission to rob the american people of their freedom. >> that's why he killed bin laden. ts he almt destroyed now al qaeda, which he said he would do. >> i'm just saying that's their world view, and the fear expresses itself in the idea that this man mu be someone else. musbe aer. het hn rson. he must have an agenda that's hidden for some reason. >> among the agenda items, joe, i want to point out some things

republicans are watching, and a good number do. i just want to point o a couple this. yo stoar 4) dod. bee babu certainly didn't get in the way of it doubling. he didn't have some plan to bring down wall street. it's over 13,500 now. it was 6,500 when he got in there. these are realities. this should have some role in people's reality. >> the housing market is coming back. consumer debt levels are at all-time lows but i agree with howard. what do you hear most often from these people? we want our america back. well, the america thathey're living in now is increasingly mity iales different kind of people, you know, the mini marts are -- the cliche is every mini mart is run by a south asian. there are all these latinos around and they look at -- >> mini markets, actually. i ulsay the new arrivals in our country are very good at workg 24 and stockthr store with great, fresh produce that's very healthy for people, in many cases. >> the south asians and the koreans, the east asians have been model american immigrants. they're terrific. they -- >> i don't think they have a crime factor at all in most t pe atheir grandchildren and see them dating people of different races

and then they see them becoming gay, some of them, and then they look at the president of the united states, who doesn't have the good sse to be either black or white and his middle name is hussein, qed, he's a muslim. >> i like the way you phrased it, becoming gay. i'm not sure of the choice. that came up with trent lott, i think. >> but the point -- >> announcing they are gay. >> right. >> joe's point is it's a more complicated world than it was. demographically in terms of all the different ethnic groups, in yoiti thk the ar 140 or 150 languages spoken in the schools. at the republican convention that was opie and andy griffith and that was a wonderful thing on tv even though it wasn't real at the time either, and that -- i don't mean to -- it sounds coescending, i'm not trying to behat i wish life were simpler. >> the fear is legitimate. >> yeah, i wish -- >> the fear is real. >> we loved the '50s. >> but we're not -- >> a lot of people had no reason to love e 'fifty, the civil

rights bills and, you couldn't ta -- you couldn't do it on route 40. let me bring this up. it seems like joe biden is a familiar fige 60 years ago. barack obama, of course, has an exotic name, an african name. he's not an unusual fellow. heeems lika person you wou hang out with, play go wit thesaren str onie leonets moomn, regular -- someone you would have met 100 years ago. are the democratic party, the new age that they scare people? i just don't see that myself. maybe i'm part of that reality. i don't see them as strange at all. >> chris, it goes back to the propaganda factor. it's not just that rush and fox and those guys say something, it's that we say the other thing. if we say that barack obama isn't a muslim, that must not true because we're the liberal media, we're the mainstream media, and nothing we can say --

we say can be trusted. >> i have called an anti-posture for years. just saying no to everything. thank you, guys. i thk you nailed it. it'ssychological. anyway, howard fineman and joe klein, thank you. coming up, could baracobambe thmo'salg? yeaydr sullivan. he has a chance to transform american politics. the first thing he has to do is win. >> world leaders seek his guidance. they don't dare reject his invitations. mittned idobasecom spoke at the clinton global initiative. more importantly, he knows who he wants to win. obama this time. hillary next time. what could make wisconsin governor scott walker become pro-u.n.? >> the packers play it at the goal line as wilson scrambles to keep it alive. the game's final play, a wilson lo to the end zone. which is fumbled by tate with jennings sultaneous. who s it who do they give it to?

touchdown! >> well, one result of that, the anti-union pro-packers governor of wisconsin scott walker wants the union refs back on the field after the substitute refs gave the catch in that game last night to seattle. puann.t me finh wi thi top acks from voting. and this is "hardball," the place for politics.

take a look this head-scratcher of a poll number from the new cnbc poll. 55% say the economy is worse. ju 22% say it's better. when asked which candidate is better for the economy, 43% say president obama.

34%, only 34%, say mitt romney. put that together, tse sets of numbers.

welcome back to "hardball." with just six weeks to go to the election and recent gains in swing states by president obama, democrats are allowing themsees to begin thinking about what a second obama presidential term woulbe l what it woullookike. stue of "newsweek" the cover story is written by andrew sullivan who argues that with a second term president obama could become a transformative president. in fact, among the nation's great presidents. here is something sure to gall republicans, he says president obama could become the democrats' ronald reagan. ers coc figure who e wl struggled through a recession and terrorized world. reshaping the economy within it, passing universal health care, strafing the ranks of al qaeda, presiding over a civil rights revolution, and then enjoying

thuif recory. with me now is "newsweek's" andrew sullivan, also editor of "the dish" and also joining me is ari melber, a correspondent for "the nation." gentlemen, thank you. our main focus is on you and your big brain, andrew, my friend, cause it's hard r me to figure out what "newswe" haenoing the last few months because every front cover is different from the other one. one trashes obama. this one brilliantly i think celebrates the potential of a certain election result. intos oennk sensehow you got about the next four years given all our focus here at "hardball" and elsewhere on what's gointo happ in six weeks. >> because he, the president, has been thinking about it for four years already, d if you veeen he's always played a long game, and part of that long game was always re-election. most presidents deal with the middle east in the last two years. he started his first go. he inherited the worst recession but he pushed through health care reform at the very beginning.

he knew these things would take time, and so he set it up in a way to enable the g payoff to come later, which is a high-risk/high-reward strategy. on the debt, of course, the republicans went nuts and prevented him from getting a sensible grand bargain on this, but, again, he set up the debt ceiling fiasco so we have sequestrn coming down december 31sand e enof t buaxs ot happens. and even jim demint has now conceded that if obama wins, th they will have to give on taxes. once the republicans give on taxes, we could have the gnd rgif, , inba wins with a big enough margin. >> let's get to that quote by senator de demint, very conservative senator from south carolina. we're not going to save our defensunless we go along with the president's wies to raise 's ad oice.all business. i would never support it, but

there are enough republicans i think who are so afraid of defense cuts that they would probably give in. let me go to ari. thanks for joining us, ari. my sense is as well andrew has laid this out, how obama i this visionary and can think the orr s d, must have also counted on an economic recovery kicking in with a lot more steam than we've had which jeopardizes getting to that second term. we havan 8%-plus unemployment rate that looks like it's going to bfacing us in the face the day peop vote. >> i think that's right. ey h hophenoou rebound more. they inherited a 750 million per month loss rate and have improved a lot from that as andrew documents in the piece, but they have a longer ways to go. i ink the other interesting comparison to ronald reagan is there's two ronald reagans. there was the ronald reagan who worked with democrats, who made tax reform a priority will you also raised taxes, who signed

the deral law that ruire orpleny iat the e.r. ronald reagan worked across the aisle on a lot of things and then there's the ronald reagan we hear about only in the gop primary debates, a conserve ty ideologue at every turn. if you talk about the first reagan, obama has tried to follow that path, but he's had less cooperation on offer from the congress. he didn't -- >> chris, can i make t points s.nan k-- that reagan ended his first term with a higher misery index than obama currently has. reagan's recessionas also a fairly induced recession in order to wring inflation out of the economy, a it happenednd beon w. obama inherited a financial collapse recession which of their nature lasts longer, and it happened before he got there. thinthatelpslahe er. if you look at the gallup poll

of approval of reagan and obama, you will see they're the closest of any two presidents in the last 50 years except that reagan sank lowern his first term than obama er did. he went down to 35%. and obama's highs are less high. so it's still a strugg, i age, b t wob has been able to do is say, look, i'm not giving you sugar high morning in america. i'm telling you, we're gritty, back to the basics, rebuilding america, and i know it's tough, but that is finally a different kind of message. people reaze that reagan's reryas t sugignd we still had to deal with its debt. >> wl, the question i have -- first ofll, i'm nosure yo r bsel volcker was appointed fed chair by jimmy carter and he began squeezing the money supply under carter, i know about it, i was there. >> but the recession started in '81. >> you call the misery index. obviously, the strongest element

e plnte,p ary dex right now is 8.3. inflation doesn't help getting rid of it politically if it isn't around. nobody gives you credit for not having inflation. they give you anger if you have -- >> but let me remind you, every right wing economist was suggesting hyperinflation by now because of our debt. we have a oblem of deflation but i'm just saying, if -- people don't accept that but they accept he's done the best he can. and what's interesting in the poll that they know it's tough, buthey ink g the better plan to fix it. >> let's talk about the two things we argue about on this show. let's start with immigration. how do you get through a really good immigration bill that has both progressivity in terms of letting people come in the country, recognizing who is periods of time with work permits. how do you put it all on paper and stop the under the table stuff? can he do that with a team that really enforces it? >> you do it the way reagan did it. you get both parties together and you figure it out. and you do it in the congress. thase n'ne it is because the republicans have blocked it. and that's the other thing. if republicans lose the latino

vote this time by the kind of margins the polls are showin there are many people in the republican party, karl rove onemo rss if h, jeb bush chief they alienate this constituency permanently they're headed for minority status forever, a regional minority white party. and they need latinos. so i think there's enough of a group of people, especiay in the senateand possibly even in e hoe, tactu m immigration forward, and i think obama should make it the first priority. >> i'd like to see some teeth involved with it because they did simpn and the teeth fell out. let me askou, i, aut ts de. are you confident as andrew is that there can be some big deal on spending and revenues that the republicans will come to the table -- they'll belly up and say, damn it, obama won twice in a row, we have to deal with hi or will they go to the right havi losa lot moderat in nelonha

thlection coming up, and say, no, we're going to continue with the scorched earth policy of bringing this guy down. if we can't keep him fm being elected a couple times, we're still going to destroy his legacy. icy ou iin neouar hts in again? >> i think it depends on the margin. i think if it's considered on the right a narrow re-election for the president, if we postulate that hypothetical, then they say, well, the only problem wapaulyan ou lde mfirs t tic cova, you know that argument. i think if it's a blowout and these are all ifs, you have a goldwater-type reassessment, then, yes, a, you have a desire to manufacture, and, b, you have new people in the party like a ted cruz that the president can go out and talk to and say let's be reasonable. you're a tea party guy, but let's do something that people like your parents can have a path to citizenship and -- >> that's a good idea. i'm for that. thank you, gentlemen. andrew sullivan, amazing piece. i will read it several times. >> thank you. >> a melber, thank you. up next, it took wild ending to last night's wisconsin governor scott walker to finally side with union workers. that's next in the "sideshow."

yeah, i'm looking to save, but i'm not sure which policy is right for me. you should try our verage checker. it helps you see you have o muove otugh, ngeato g what you need you have [ beeping ] these are great! [ beeping ] how are you, um, how are you doing? i'm going to keep looking over here. probably a good idea. ken: what'a good idea? nothing. visit progressive.com today.

a lot of buzz about that refs' call in last night's game between the packers and the seahawks. >> final play. wilson lob to the end zone. which is fumbled by tate wh jeingsimultaneous. who was it? who did they give it to? touchdown! >> well, you saw two different calls by the ref. one interception, one touchdown. quite a t of outrage from people who say the replacement sd cd a interception, not the touchdown that won the game for seattle. the replacement refs are filling in during the labor dispute. between the nfl and regular refs. the onslaught of calls to get the permanent guys back on the

fiiswiftas night, of course, even from the political people. president obama said earlier today he wants the permanent refs to come back, but a few nuggets from the gop as well. wisconsin governor scott walker, no friend of labor, tweeted, quote, after catching a few hours of sleep, the packers game is still just asainf, with the hash tag retn the real refs. paul ryan, also a wisconsinite a ern,eed. i mn, ge me bre. it is time to get the real refs, and you know what? it reminds me of president obama and the economy. if you can't get it rit, it's time to get out. i half think tt the refs work part timeor t oba mira ahege offi. they see a debt crisis and they just ignore and pretend it didn't even happen. they're trying to pick the winners and losers, and they don't even do that very well. >> what a cheap exploitation of something people really ca about. yse ernd rtrti-uni to get the unionized -- see the irony, refs back on the field? what bad speech writing. by the way, he was reading it off the lectern.

he couldn't even remember it. next, the story of chris christie and a reporter. the first one of the season anyway. an event yesterday one reersshre is state's full foreclosure laws, its policies. you know what came up next? >> do you have a follow-up question? >> who are you, by the way? >> jim. >> from where? >> channel 7. >> my follow-up would be, m suhangs true. >> next question. >> this is an urgent -- >> next question. >> why would you blow it off? >> please. >> why would you brush it off? >> do me a favor, don't show up once in every blue moon and think you're goingo dominate my press conference. >>'m n >> thank you very mu. >> your agency -- >> at that same event christie downplayed the effect of comments 47% comments caught on camera, racking it up to a bad week for romney but conceding the governor that if the election were tomorrow, that he sthne saigh lem.

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ouotfeefreed by polics ter at one. has anybody been as big a player in the presidential campaign than mr. bill clinton, bubba? well, both president obama and mitt romney spoke at the clion global initiativup inew york today anthat's ahead. ey're all genuflecting to the big guy, elvis. he's back. watching "hardball," the place for politics.

welcome back to "hardball. eada tli e thrghoud an global initiative up in new york, bill clinton is the man to see. he's so influential mitt romney took time away from the campaign trail to attend the meeting up there today. president obama, too, praised the former president. let's listen to president obama. ieip y f your extraordinary leadership, and i think i speak for the entire country when we say that you continue to be a great treasure

for all of us. >>while r bill clinton mean for the 2012 election looking ahead for six weeks and beyond? john heilemann is new york magazine national affairs editor and an msnbc contributor. and i must give you congratulations, john. i was outherwithou, u maalrin e bo thicupour, count them, four emmys this weekend, this sunday night. we all watched. it must be amazing to be part of a show that included that fit hour or so of that show and then it got intellectual when you got up there. i thout it was pretty nglations.. it's all part of television. susan page, thank you. i'm sure you'll get your emmy some day for front page reporting with "usa today." let me ask you about a game-changing situation. i know you don't want to give away your next book. it seems bl cltosp

in charlotte not only changed the political sort of feel but people began to feel coming out of that according to some polling i have seen feeling better about the economy objectively. >> yes. >> tell me about that. the way you look at that. >> i think hugely important that speech, chris, i think in a way even conservatives have acknowledged the speech was kind of a game-changing mt in the election. he did twoiffentng e ceh ed ly d ou clarity. he laid out the argument for the fact that it really refuted in a very powerful, concrete way and answered the question that the obama campaign was having trouble answering, which was are you better off now than you were fo years ago? he said, yes, you are, phatallyand t mehow that was huge. there's a lot of polling that suggested that the bunch that president obama got out of the convention was almost all due to bill clinton. you now see him almost like a running mate if you look at the obama ads. you see obama ads across the coy,si con is in almost all of the ones that are running heavily in the swing states right now. and they run -- the video runs back to back at the d of the ads.

you see president clinton speaking, president obama speang. 's almost as if they are running mates. that's how powerful the obama complain thinks bill clinton is as a kind of champion of the notion that in fact things are on the right track. >> susan, i want to you look a a short bite from the great "daily show" which won its tenth emmy, i think, the other night. here is jon stewart and he talked about -- it was an understated reference to clinton tour de force in charlotte. lots'schry qu >> so, give any good speeches lately or -- >> susan, that is now so well known that that speech was so good that all stewart, who's brilliant at this, just teases that. >> you kw, it's really me, e twn,. barack obama and bill clinton, who, you know, have a history and not a good one. they have a history as being rivals, some bitterness from the primary battle four years ago, and yet if president obama wins a second term, some of the credit is going to go to bill clinton. and you saw in the interview that presidentbama did with "60 nute on sundhed,

here's a quality i admire in presidents i have studied who are successful, persistence, it's an underrated virtue. who do you think he was talking about? e' pson in public life who has been more persistent than bill clinton in getting knocked down and getting right back up. >> and that is the key. oliver wendell holmes said you can't change everything your life, but u can have a big heart, you can keep trying. anyw, onbs "ce nn" this sunday bill clinton was noncommittal in his way if hillary clinton will run in 2016. we can always read this guy. he left no doubt that he this she's in the right job now and, of course, we kn what he's thinki about the future. let's wah hiin aion. >>usn'ow she's an extraordinarily able person. i never met anybody i thought was a better public servant, but i have no earthly ea what she'll decide to do. >> you know he's really good at that.

john, i just -- i find him so fascinating wat. tsto ans must be in the 200 range and he's there saying what he knows he has to say, don't speak for her, she's an autonomous figure, happened to be married to him, but she's a politician in her own right. don't preclude anything she does but i thought it was very much a eerful message about her. >> well, look, president clinton clearly wants his wife to run in 2016. i don't think there's any doubt about that. i spent the day at cgi and there's a lot of the old clinton neork around that operation. you talk to those fos, there's a lot of people who want her to run. thonavy t president clinton wants her to run, that he thinks she would be a great president, he thinks she's been a great secretary of state. i think president clinton is actually speak the truth when he sayse doesn't know what she's going to do. i think she has made a very conscious decision, even with the people closest around her, to say i'm not talking abo ouat.ni't ki i want to finish this job. i want to take some time off. i think the question becomes a year from now when she's ahead of every democrat invery poll

by 50 points and she's seen as being the only one who can raise the kind of money you would need to be able to run, whether she if she decides to gein, she se.ars the fieldith anyone i don't see any other democrat in any position to take her on. >> speaking from my native state, pennsylvania, she'd win with 70% against anybody. let's take a look at her speech today because i think at the global initiative i think she's trying to do very subtly a little help to the president. here she is talkaway about i imbalance of power and the althy and elite, how they wo iwaaterweig ad supportive of what the president has been saying about tax fairness. >> one of the issues that i have been preacng about around the world is collecting taxes in an equitable manner, espely from the elites in every country. you know, i'm out of american politics, but it is a fact that around the world the elites of every country are making money. there are rich peopl everywhere, and yet they do not contribute to e grth of >> s susan, was she talking

about argentina, borneo, or the good old u.s. of a? i think she was doing some home consumption there. >> that doesn't seem like such a subtle message to me. that seems clear. i assume hillary clinton runs in four years because why shouldn't she? any man in that situation would rng joe biden is talki about running, a, knheres a change from four years ago. four years ago when she ran we thought of bill clinton as a mixed blessing, a guy who carried some baggage. what do we think we'll think about him in four years? it seems to me he's going to be probably a total asset for h if and when she decides to make another bid. >> we'll see. you know, he's always the bbaid a he waysas so maybe he's made his final comeback. it's an awful big one. you're right, susan, but you never know. john heilemann, susan page,

thank you both. up next, today is national voter registration day. couldn't be momportant given t'nd h the democrats are fighting back against that republican effort so many states, 17 of them suppress the minority vote. this is "hardball," the place for politics.

>>'racy six weeks out from the election right w. today nate silver of the "new york times" crunched the numbers to see what the polls tell us about which way this race is headed. here's what he found. since 1936 of the 19 presidential candidates who led

in the polls at this point in the campaign, 18 of the 19 w the popular vote17 won the elrall the exceptions, tom dewey and poor al gore back in 2000. if you eliminate the candidates with double digit leads at this point, the front-runner's record is 8 wins out of 10. w tstno vpercentage of 80%. iman we'll be right back.

we cannot let anyone discourage us from casting our ballots. we cannot let anyone make us feel unwelcome in the voting oth. it is up to us to make sure that ard y iunted.n every voe is that means making sure our laws preserve that right. >> wow. welcome back to "hardball." that was michelle obama speaking

at the congressional black caucus this saturday nig. she was rerring to the urtoe orefrt s 2 o difficult to vote, especially minorities. this map shows the 17 states where laws have been passed since then making it tougher to vote now than it was in the last -- harder than the last election. pot eono it's even more eligible to vote i think get registered to vote and fight for that right to vote. today is national voter registration day in this country. it's a two-pronged effort to get people registered and make sure peoplenow what sorts of documentation they need to vote on election day or earlier. marc morial is the president of the urban league a sponsored y self v rtrn victoria defrancesco soto is an nbc latino contributor. i want to talk, marc, thank you so much for coming on. here is your chance to make the case to people who might be disillusioned or discouraged because they've heard abouall the suppression out there,

attempt to suppress, especially minority votes. let's be honest. >> let's not be discouraged. let's not be pushed back, even though there's been a tremendous effort to make it more difficult for people to vote. we want to encourage people to register and we want to encourage people who believe they are registered to check their registration, make sure they know what those requemen are while 17 states have passed laws, chris, there were proposals in 41 states. and of 17 states where laws have been passed, we waged a vigorous effort to stop those laws in eir trac. this is about democracy and this is about the right to vote. we shouldn't make it more difficult. we should make it simple and clear and plain for people to be ab to register and participate in docracy. >> victoria, let's talk about latino and lino vote andhe fegsy anoties facing this onslaught of new days, new dates, closed doors, closed windows to voting. >> it's a steep hurdle for millions of people. let's take for example the photo

i.d. laws. 60% of latinos do not have the requisite docunts to vote with a photi.d., compare that to 6% of nonlatino whites. >> naturalized, born here but they -- >> absolutely. >> what reason would they have for not having it, a photo i.d. card? >> first of all, the cost of getting that identification. here in texas where they tried to pass a stringent rule, it's very hard to get to a dmv if you're a rural latino voter. they say, it's a free photo i.d. what they don't tell you, it costs you up to $22 to get a birth certificate in order to get that free photo i.d. one way or the other -- >> it's like a poll tax? >> exactly.

>> it is a poll tax. >> exactly a poll tax. >> let me ask you about this -- the -- do you have a sense, mark, whether this was -- i don't know if conspiracy is the right wordutonce et in these states and i think the democrats weren't watching the candy store when all these people got elected. were they all working together when this -- >> this was an orchestrated, planned attack. an orchestrated plned alane that tooplac you had groups like american legislative exchange council who were behind this. you had large numbers of people who determine that it was part of the 2012 strategy to make it more difficult for people to vote. we need to understand that there have been sct cases of voter impersonation in this country, that have turned up. this is a solution looking for a problem. ise lla initiatives behind a phoney smoke screen of voter fraud. we want people to understand what it is. we want people to be informed. we want people tvote. >> here's congressman -- the great congressman john lewis,

civil rights hero. he was talking at voter gisttionventgea y,oung people to fight voter suppression. he's been great on this. let's listen. >> there are forces in america today, not just in the american south, but all across our land, that is trying to make it hard and difficult for people to register and vote, for people to cast their vote. for all across america today, members of the congressional black caucus at this hour and later dung the day, are doing the same thing. but we have 44 members in each congressional district. we have until what, october 9th? to get people registered. >> you kno victoria,t seems tothrsinatld come of this concerted effort of 17 states to try to close the

door to americans and legitimate voters is pele say no to themselves. i was at howard to the commencement, i said to th kids, don't ever say no to yourself. i'afraid morpeop -- rk w sths g be the biggest pain in the butt, too complicated, i'm not going to go this year, even if it's obama. is that a danger out there, they'll be intimidatedut of voting? >> it's a danger. the irony of it is is that we're not using nological vances to automate our systems. a handful of states have used automated registration systems where i can go online and register to vote. the bulk of the states are going in retrogress of manners. thiss what is most frustrating to me onhis day natnal r ston >> chris, you know, there are many of us across the nation who have campaigns and efforts. ours is called occupy the vote. we have a website that provides information that people need. we have a hot line people can go to at 1-866-vote-one. we need everyone that loves d rss vg nderstands democracy

fotif democracy, to get out there and make sure people are not frustrated. >> we'll have you back, ma. we want this message out, too, almost as much as you. thank you, mark of urban league and victoria, who work with us. we'll be right back in a minute. . progresso. your new light creamy potato with bacon & cheese soup says 's 100 calories a serving. th's right. in what world do potatoes, bacon and cheese add up to 100or yowo my world. ♪ [ whispers ] real bacon... creamy cheese... [ whispers ] 100 calories... say it again... [ whispers ] 100 calories... ma'am, hello? ma'am

let me finish with this. we've said it before and we'll say it again. the republican party should be ashamed of trying to suppress voting of african-americans. 17 states have required more documents or shut down voting opportunities. it mste efrt you have to be wonder is run out of the national republican committee itself. if not, they might get out there and think about condemning it. i think that will happen when hell freezes over. these are organized campaigns by republican-controlled legislatures at the state level with the single ambition to cut down on voting by african-americans and other minorities. in some cases the courts have been able to stop them. it's the old dirty scam of winning elections by keeping ur rivals from getting out their vote. you can't win the hearts and mindof voters,hut wi. uth lt nitot tir voting opportunities. the continued talk and tv ad about welfare recipients, obama being a food stamp president, the filibuster to shut down the first african-american president and the continued talk by people